My personal Franken-razor

[GeorgeMason]

I was given an old metal lathe over the weekend, along with a bunch of accessories and metal to go with it. Now when I say old I am talking in the same age group as most of my razors, pre WWII. The lathe was free with the condition that I actually use it, so once I got it home I set it up and started playing. After testing it to find its limitations I decided what better a first project than a new handle for one of my razors from the same era. I chose a Goodwill that had a Probak handle as the test head, but it should work on any of my 3 piece razors.

All and all it didn't turn out too bad, took 2 tries to get it right enough to use, and it still has some flaws, but its not bad for a first effort. Pictures are from fresh out of the sink to clean off the oils, dirt, and brass chips. The handle adds 10 grams over the Probak handle.

I want to get a finer knurling tool, and my auto feed let go part way so I had to pull the lathe apart midway through the knurling process to do a temp repair so I could finish. Tomorrow I need to drill a couple of small holes in the feed block and turn a couple of screws to hold it in place. something that would be a lot easier if the auto feed was working in the first place

Here is the old lathe that did the work

 

[ShavinBacon]

That is awesome. When do you start taking orders?

 

[lowjax]

Very cool. I've been thinking the same thing for myself. I was a machinist in a former life and would like to dabble in it again. My father-in-law has a shopsmith and I asked him about using it to turn wood. I may get myself into making some brush handles to start with and if that goes well, look at razor handles down the road.

 

[chongo gordo]

I like the course knurling, more grippy.

 

[warhawk]

Very nice.

WARHAWK

Real Men Wear Pink: Proud supporter of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

 

[ThomasB98908]

Very nice, There are sooooo many talented people on this forum. Great job.

 

[GeorgeMason]

Thanks I see plenty of room for improvement though. Once I get that auto feed properly fixed I can start making other wheels for my knurling tool because with the lathe I got a indexing table. I do need to get some round pieces of tools steel first, but that is easy enough, and I do have a forge that will get hot enough to reach temps for heat treating.

 

[bryan1980]

Very, very nice! The possibilities are endless, with regards to handle material, knurling patterns, length, diameter, etc.

 

[Viseguy]

That's a fine-looking handle, and one you'll get a really firm grip on. Kudos!

 

[mharris127]

Looks wonderful! The cheapest lathes today are in the thousands of dollars so even if you need to replace a few parts you got a good deal.

 

[GeorgeMason]

Looks wonderful! The cheapest lathes today are in the thousands of dollars so even if you need to replace a few parts you got a good deal.

The best we can figure is that it is an old European lathe, any broken parts will need to be manufactured or repaired AGAP because finding replacement parts will be next to impossible The part broke on the auto feed, the top half nut, was silver soldered in place, but had originally been held in place with a screw and a pin.

I was able to do a temp fix by putting a screw back in the hole, unfortunately I think the reason that it was soldered on is because the pin broke allowing the part to rotate under force. It catches going left to right, but skips going right to left. I don't have torches hot enough for silver solder, so I am going to attempt to make a new pin hole and hardened pin to get it going again. If that fails I will have to find someone that will either lend my their torches and silver solder it again, or is willing to do it for me. I would rather do it myself so I have no one to blame if it isn't done right.

It is easy enough to drop the apron to get to the parts so tomorrow I am going to get at fixing it properly, then it is off to find more material to work with. I have a piece of bloodwood kicking around that I haven't used or allocated to a knife handle so maybe a a brush handle is next

 

[mharris127]

I am surprised that the spring is still holding on there at all considering the damage. I am not an expert at this (my father was a millwright but I am not) but I wonder if that part could be carefully welded on with a stick-type welder. I don't know how long it would hold but if you have the equipment it wouldn't take much to re-weld it when necessary.

 

[MaxP]

Great work. Thanks for sharing your work.

 

[GeorgeMason]

I am surprised that the spring is still holding on there at all considering the damage. I am not an expert at this (my father was a millwright but I am not) but I wonder if that part could be carefully welded on with a stick-type welder. I don't know how long it would hold but if you have the equipment it wouldn't take much to re-weld it when necessary.

Welding would be a great option, but its all brass other than the springs. Right now I have it screwed in place at the one point it could be screwed and I put a couple of pins in that sit over the half nut to keep it from twisting. I now have auto feed from left to right, but it doesn't take much pressure to make it skip. I finished up this attempt at a repair too late to try any knurling, but I don't think it will hold well enough to get any real impressions without skipping. I am probably going to have to get new half nuts and make new arms to mount them to, along with stronger springs so they hold the screw better.

Its all OK for now because I don't need to do any knurling for a bit.

 

[celestino]

That is awesome. When do you start taking orders?

+1 Congratulations!

 

[BBrad]

Very nice job . . . there is certainly a market for replacement handles for all those OT and NEW razors with cracked tubes!

I like the coarse knurling - sort of like the Star DE - lots of grip!

 

[OkieStubble]

Very nice!